John Wayne’s son defended his late father after an interview with what users have called “racist” and “anti-gay” remarks surfaced, prompting a call for removal of the actor’s name from the California airport.

In the interview, the “True Grit” actor made remarks that have been labeled “racist” and “anti-gay,” according to The Washington Post.

“I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgement to irresponsible people,” Wayne said in the May 1971 interview.

“Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”

When the interviews resurfaced, John Wayne was quickly criticized by the internet and an article from The Los Angeles Times prompted calls for the removal of the actor’s name from the airport.

Ethan Wayne defended his father in an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish on the show Smerconish, saying he doesn’t want his father “attacked” and doesn’t want people “taking words from an interview that’s 8 hours long and using them out of context.”

“They put my father’s name on that airport for the same reason that Congress voted to give him a congressional gold metal, for the same reason that the president decided to give him a medal of freedom and it’s recognition of a lifetime of significant contributions to this country, his community, and to his industry,” Ethan Wayne said.

“I think it would be an injustice to they’re trying to contradict how he lived his life, and how he lived his life was who he was, so any discussion of removing his name from the picture should include the full picture of the life of John Wayne and not be based on a single, outlier interview from half a century ago.”

He said his father did use “a harsh term in relation to homosexuality,” but defends his father, saying he was “not talking negatively about homosexuality.” He says his father was speaking of the “negative direction” the film industry was taking in relation to “violence and nudity.”

Despite the call for removal from many, others said the airport name should remain.

Advertisement

“Leave the John Wayne airport the John Wayne airport. It was a different time. We can’t go back and change every street sign and remove everything just because times and language has changed,” one user tweeted.